Apple Maps to Be Rebuilt 'From the Ground Up' With First-Party Data Over the Next Year

[ghostface147]

Well I’ve seen their vans driving around Houston. Maybe they’ll call it Apple EyeLevel.

 

[ersan191]

I don’t think it’s bad at all in it’s current form, but I guess they want to shake off that stigma.

Here’s hoping they make the same announcement about Siri though.

 

[ChrisCW11]

Cool, so in traditional Apple fashion once a product becomes rock solid and reliable they decide to rebuild it from the ground up and introduce many months, or even years, of headache and issues.

 

[Baymowe335]

Posts like these just underlines how behind Apple is from Google on maps. It's going to take a heck of a lot more "updates" for me to even consider Apple Maps any time soon.

Googles Maps is terrible for me in a lot of cases and I live in a top 5 city.

The stupid routes it takes might save 10 seconds, but you have to change highways 3-4 times to do it. It also constantly falls behind in complex interchanges.

Surprisingly, Apple Maps works far better and seems to have smarter routes more consistentently, for me.

I'm glad they are improving it because I really do like it better in a lot of cases. Apple Maps seems to lag in new construction, but it does eventually support it.

 

[Abazigal]

Apple maps has been reliable enough for me, but hey, I never say no to more improvements.

 

[IPPlanMan]

Apple could have avoided a lot of grief for Maps if left a Beta label on it for all this time.

 

[Ilikechainrestaurants]

The perfect version of what you're going to spend 3 years trying to do already exists, Apple.

Implement Google Maps instead and then change Siri/search so that it actually gives you want you want.

 

[DNichter]

I've never had an issue with Apple Maps personally, but happy to see they are improving things. As long as I don't have to rely on Google, I am good.

 

[Ortiz83]

So are these improvements coming next year or starting when iOS 12 comes out and adding improvements from iOS 12 release date through the next year?

 

[BWhaler]

Awesome. I am starting to love Apple maps. Can’t wait to see the improvements. Well done Apple.

 

[Donga120]

Coming in Beta 3 then

 

[MauiPa]

My (third world) country is a desert according to Apple, I hope they focus a bit on it

The US? We used to be Great, We used to be Good, now.....................................

 

[Bigsk8r]

I haven't had issues with Apple Maps in quite a long time. In fact, I have been in some rural and country areas where I loaded up both Google and Apple to see what they would do. Both seemed to be on the case very well and - unlike 5 years ago - I have had instances in the past 2 years where Apple had a more accurate solution than Google.

For my use (extreme travel to many states and countries) they seem to be close to each other, but there are cities where one is clearly better than the other.

 

[Michael Goff]

The perfect version of what you're going to spend 3 years trying to do already exists, Apple.

Implement Google Maps instead and then change Siri/search so that it actually gives you want you want.

The only way they're going to get turn by turn is to let Google have all the data. And they don't want that.

 

[ElZeus]

They should've bought Nokia's map business when it was for sale.

 

[iMerik]

Do those Apple Maps vans have Lidar? What all is that doing? Just street view pictures? I know I could search, but maybe someone already knows a summary of it all.

 

[Bswails]

I’m hoping Apple re builds Siri from the ground up also.

 

[kemal]

I'm glad to have Apple and Google doing maps. Second opinions are always good.

 

[Blackstick]

Classic case of too little, and too late to the party.

 

[Mildredop]

starting with the San Francisco area in the next iOS 12 beta, and Northern California by fall.

At that rate, the whole of the US should be updated by 2054 with the rest of the world sometime after that.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

We don't think there's anybody doing this level of work that we're doing,

Well, yeah, not right now. Google already debuted street view in 2007. That's very much a been there done that kind of thing.

That screenshot of "before" and "after" in the title image doesn't really look revolutionary to me. You found out where some forest was? I don't know why that took you over 6 years to figure out.

 

[stillcrazyman]

I hope they can get out of using ONLY Yelp! for POI data. That's a giant hole in their POI data range.

Other than that, I find AM to be just as good as Google for maps. I still keep Google Maps for those times I want to find something or someplace.

 

[Mildredop]

Is there a way to change this where everything will open in Google Maps instead of Apple maps?

Unfortunately not. It's one of the main reasons I defected to Android.

 

[Squeak825]

NOOOOOOO

Use the money to change the big iOS volume status!!!
PLEASEEEE

That might be the silliest posting I have ever seen on this forum before.

"No! Don't spend 10's to 100's of millions of dollars investing in a critical data component that will drive future business needs for 10-30 years to fix a simple design change that I prefer this way!"

 

[trueredsoxfan58]

Would be nice if we could cache the entire country so we dont lose maps when out of coverage while traveling. I wouldnt mind giving up a few GBs for that